Nintendo starts shipping early DS2 dev kits to developers

The Nintendo DS may still be setting records through hardware and games sales, but Nintendo also has to be looking at its eventual replacement. CVG has been told that early development kits for DS2 hardware have started appearing at selected Japanese developers.

The information was sourced from an individual who works for one of those developers lucky enough to have received the kits. Apparently Nintendo is being very selective with who receives one, and is clearly choosing based on games it wants ready for a DS2 launch. For example, the first dev kit went to The Pokemon Company.

Details of what the DS2 will be capable of are very thin on the ground. The hardware is not thought to be final yet, but it will include a tilt sensor or accelerometer. CVG’s source commented:

It’s genuinely the best thing I think I’ve ever worked with. I can tell you that it’s got a ’tilt’ function that’s not dissimilar to iPhone, but does a lot more.

CVG were also told not to expect any kind of official announcement early this year. E3 may be a possible pre-release announcement, but some analysts believe Nintendo may wait as long as April 2011 to release.

I suspect Nintendo won’t mess with the DSi layout too much for the DS2. The big change was from the Game Boy to the DS. It will stick with the two screens and touch input, but I suspect we will get larger screens and possibly no need for a stylus anymore.

As for the main processor, opting for Tegra would be great as it is clearly very powerful. I’d also like to see an internal SSD and retention of the SD slot. Will Nintendo maintain backwards compatibility by keeping the cartridge slot? I suspect they won’t this time as they want to avoid copied DS games being played from day one.